The present invention relates generally to a method and system for normalizing school performance data. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for normalizing local school performance data relative to the performance data obtained from various schools and school districts across the country so as to allow meaningful, statistically relevant and direct comparison therebetween.
It is well known that the quality of education provided by public schools varies greatly depending on your location in the country. It is also well known that the quality of a child's education can vary significantly from school district to school district within a state and or even between two different schools within the same school district. In recognition of the wide variation in educational standards, an attempt to quantify student performance and to improve the performance of elementary and secondary schools across America was adopted in the context of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which was signed into law in January of 2002. The NCLB has earmarked billions of dollars that are directed to nationwide educational reform and improvement. Under NCLB each state receives federal dollars for its public and charter schools based on the performance of their schools. One of the main mechanisms for assessing performance is through student testing and the resulting test scores. In response, schools have started placing far more of an emphasis on preparing students for these NCLB standardized tests.
While theoretically, the concept of a national NCLB standardized test should provide a milestone by which to compare the performance of all of the schools in the country relative to one another, the actual test is not truly standardized. This is because while the federal government passed down guidelines and standards for the creation of a testing mechanism, the states themselves were left to develop, implement and administer the actual NCLB tests. One can easily appreciate that since the federal education grants provided to a state are based on the state's performance on the NCLB tests and since the states are then charged with authoring and administering their NCLB test, there is an incentive to create a system that skews the results in order to obtain higher grant awards. The ultimate result was that many states made their job easier by simply setting their own bar lower. A race to the bottom ensued where every state declared that its kids were better than average based on their test results. Take the amazing case of Mississippi, where according to the standards it set for itself, 89% of its fourth-graders were proficient or better in reading, making them the best in the nation. Yet according to the random sampling done every few years by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test, a mere 18% of the state's fourth-graders were proficient, making them the worst in the nation. As a result, despite the federal guidelines and standards, there is still a wide variation in the difficulty and content of the actual tests that have been implemented from state to state. Therefore, any national or interstate school comparison system that employs strictly the NCLB results as a basis for comparison is likely skewed due to the widespread differences in the underlying tests.
In the prior art, there are patent references such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,266,340 (Brescaini) that discuss the provision of a system for the normalization of student performance assessments. Brescaini provides an evaluative framework wherein student assessments are entered, evaluated and structured in a manner that normalizes the assessments in order to allow an objective side-by-side comparison of the assessments. While the Brescaini reference refers to their process as normalization, it appears that a better term would be standardization in that the Brescaini system provides a framework that limits the possible range of evaluative responses. This standardized structure thereby forces those entering the assessments to reframe their responses in a manner that fits within the system. Accordingly, while Brescaini acknowledges that there is a need for a comprehensive system that allows for inter-jurisdictional comparison of student performance assessments, Brescaini does not disclose a normalization process by which this can be accomplished. The only way Brescaini could achieve the goal of inter-jurisdictional comparison would be by mandating that every school district in the country conform to their single system. Therefore, Brescaini does not teach a method of taking student test scores from different base tests and normalizing the test scores across the different tests to make the results comparable.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,261 (Clark et al.) provides for a collaborative scoring system to reduce scoring errors and normalize test answers relative to one another. In Clark, a system is provided wherein the answers entered during a test are simultaneously scored by at least two people. If there is a discrepancy in their scoring, the answer is flagged for further scrutiny thereby reducing errors in scoring. In this regard, Clark provides for the concept of normalization across test scoring but it is employed on an answer-by-answer basis in connection with the scoring of a single test for each individual student. In no way does Clark et al.'s system provide for a structure that allows comparison between test results from different test-takers and different base tests, as Clark et al. only insures that incorrect scoring on any one answer on a given standardized test is reduced to a minimum by having two people evaluate that individual student's score.
There is therefore a need for a method and system that provides normalization of student testing data and results that facilitates a true comparison of all of the various schools and school districts across the nation such that test scores can be compared meaningfully even when the test-takers are taking different tests. Further, there is a need for a method and system that provides a meaningful basis for comparison of school performance statistics on a national basis, particularly across or between schools in different states.